Need You for Mine (Heroes of St. Helena)(84)

“What is this?” Harper asked.

“Romance, Harp.”

Emerson took Harper’s hand and led her through the crowd of familiar faces. Some had their cameras out, others were just smiling, but everyone was watching her, waiting to see her reaction.

Then she got to the front of the line and saw what all of the squeals were about. At the door, standing in a pair of Swagger Tough boxers and a matching man-robe was Dax. He handed Harper a flyer and said, “This gets you fifteen percent off at the counter, and anything from the online store. Today only.”

“What are you doing?” Harper asked, trying to keep her eyes on Dax’s face. Impossible since the man was built like a DC-10 and could break steel bars over his very naked abs.

“He’s part of the live display,” Emerson said, then glared at the women drooling over her fiancé. “And there will be no touching of the display!”

Harper felt Emerson’s hands on her, guiding her closer to the doorway, past Jonah posing in Swagger Original, and that’s when she caught a glimpse of the window display. Deep fabrics and Scotch-colored accents highlighted the masculine undertones of the display. Everything was bold, smooth, edgy, and so perfect she could cry.

Then she spotted the leather reading chair in the center of the display and nearly died.

Not only was the display perfect, but the face of Swagger—and the man who had crushed her heart—occupied it. Sprawled out in yesterday’s scruff, plum-colored boxers, and nothing else, he was posed beneath a giant flat screen, which looked to have been borrowed from the local sports bar and displayed a giant promo poster that had been made from one of her campaign designs. Someone had added the words REAL MEN LOVE.

She didn’t know what his presence meant, or the message, but she was too afraid to hope. But then she saw the vulnerability in Adam’s eyes and realized he was afraid too. And somehow that allowed her to give in to the hope.

“I told you I didn’t need you,” she said, in case this was a friendly gesture.

He tapped his ear, then pointed to the glass. Harper looked at the few hundred women, who were all looking back, riveted on what was transpiring. Cheeks pink, she raised her voice. “I said, thanks, but you didn’t have to do this!”

Again with the ear pointing, then he gave a come-hither wiggle of the finger.

“The girl said she doesn’t need you!” Peggy yelled so loudly it could’ve been heard from space.

“Thank you,” Harper said a little sharply to the older woman, “but I’ve got this.”

“Oh, honey, I don’t think you do,” Peggy said, and the bobbleheads around her nodded in unison. “Otherwise you’d be in there showing him a little thigh and getting somewhere.”

Great, now she was getting dating advice from Peggy. With a sigh Harper turned back to the window, only to find the seat was empty. She looked around and watched Adam stride through the crowd.

When he was close enough to touch her, he put his hands on her hips. “But I need you.”

A collective sigh filled Main Street, but she ignored it. “Do you need me or my friendship?”

“Both,” he said. “I want both.”

Her chest ached at his statement. “I want everything. Not just fun and fancy-free.” She poked him in the chest and her finger bounced back. “I want passion and adventure and love. I want extraordinary.”

“I want to give you extraordinary and passion. I want to give you everything. Hell, sunshine, I want you,” he said. “Every single part of you. The yellow parts and the orange parts, even the pink parts.”

“Real men wear pink,” someone hollered from the back, but Adam kept his eyes on Harper.

“What about the red parts?” Harper asked, her stomach a jumble of knots, because everyone liked those parts of her. It was the rest that always went unnoticed.

“God, baby, the red ones are my favorite.” To prove it, he ran his hands up her sides and back down, her body tingling at his touch. “They’re all my favorite. Do you know I remember every kiss we’ve ever had, every word we ever shared, every outfit you’ve ever worn, including the bright yellow dress you wore that first night, right here.”

Harper thought back to that night, the way they’d run into each other, the way he’d made her feel so special and seen, and she shook her head. “That wasn’t real.”

“That’s what I thought too, but I was wrong. God, I have been so wrong about everything,” he said. “It’s all real. Every look, every kiss, every lame line. The way I feel about you, the man I am because of you—it just took me losing you to realize it.”

“And what did you realize?” she asked quietly.

“That you are the most real person I know. There is no way I couldn’t fall in love with you. I think I loved you when you threw your dress at me.”

“She Hadam at hello,” Clovis said in a dreamy voice.

“You did.” Adam cupped Harper’s face. “You’ve charmed me, Harper Owens. Heart and soul.”

He dropped to his knee and the crowd gasped. So did Harper.

“Oh my God.” She looked around at the swelling crowd, who had formed a circle around them, then back to the man she loved who was down on one knee, baring it all to win her back. “What are you doing?”